New Ways To Gamble Lie Ahead

Bill Boosts Boom In Florida Betting

Soon, you may be able to play small-stakes poker between races at the dog track.

Or place wagers in pinochle games while you enjoy an evening at the jai-alai fronton.

That's because the Legislature this month passed a bill by state Rep. Steve Geller, D-Hallandale, that permits card rooms to operate at the state's 30 pari-mutuels and provides tax breaks to that industry, which is beset by declining betting revenues and dwindling crowds.

Everywhere you look in Florida, it seems, there is gambling.

We bet on horses and dogs at the tracks. We wager on jai-alai at the frontons. We have casinos operated by Indian tribes and casinos on boats. And we spend millions of dollars on the state-run lottery and at bingo games.

Whether this is a good bet or a bad gamble depends on whom you talk to.

"I believe the cards will add a great deal of excitement to our facility," said Ted Snell, executive vice president and general manager of Pompano Harness Track.

"It is testament to the influence of gambling," said John Sowinski, campaign chairman of No Casinos, the group that led opposition to casino gambling in Florida in 1994.

"I think the people of Florida are ultimately going to turn on that industry."

This betting boom sneaked up on Florida piecemeal.

The public has been allowed to bet on dogs, horses and jai-alai for decades. A legal loophole allowed big bingo halls to open. Court rulings allowed gambling on reservations. Then no one objected when day-cruise ships became floating casinos. And voters decided to jump on the lottery bandwagon that was sweeping the nation.

Now the Legislature has even commissioned a study on telephone wagering. By votes of 30-3 and 88-29, the Senate and House, respectively, passed the Geller bill, which includes a provision ordering the study. Gov. Lawton Chiles is not expected to veto it.

County commissions must give final approval to card rooms operating at pari-mutuels in their jurisdictions. If they do, you can expect to see them operating at Dania Jai-Alai, Pompano Harness Track, Palm Beach Kennel Club and other tracks and frontons in South Florida and across the state after Jan. 1.

The expanded gambling comes just a year and a half after Floridians trounced - for the third time - a ballot proposition that would have legalized casino gambling in the state.

Proposition for Limited Casinos would have authorized as many as 47 casinos, including 30 at pari-mutuels. It was rejected by 62 percent of the state's voters. Broward was the only county in which it passed.

"You can't reconcile the government sanctioning of the expansion of gambling and the public's aversion to it," Sowinski said. "The influence of the pari-mutuel industry is enormous. But more gambling doesn't make people susceptible to wanting more."

Perhaps, but Floridians seem to react differently to low-stakes gambling than proposals for Las Vegas-style casinos.

"We kind of view other forms of gambling as benign," said Pat Fowler, executive director of the Florida Council on Compulsive Gambling. "I think that is a mistake ... because any expansion of gambling will bring more problem or pathological gambling. We have substantial gaming in our state already."

Floridians spent $4.2 billion on legal gambling in 1994, and that didn't include bets at the state's four Indian casinos. Only eight states wagered more.

Even low-stakes gambling can be harmful, Fowler said.

The council's hotline received more than 9,000 calls between July 1994 and June 1995, most requesting help for themselves or a family member with a gambling problem.

Nine out of 10 callers who were problem gamblers said their wagering caused conflicts with their family. Five out of six said they had incurred troublesome debts.

"We have people who play day and night," Fowler said. "They play hand after hand. The losses can be quite substantial."

Some people think otherwise.

"You can play [cards) all day for $40, as long as you win once in a while," Snell said.

If Geller's bill becomes law, there will be a maximum pot of $10. Players will pay a small ante - perhaps a quarter - and buy chips or tokens in small denominations, such as nickels, dimes and quarters.

Players bet against each other, not the house, as is done at a casino.

Snell plans to open two poker rooms with 75 tables at his harness track, if the bill becomes law. He thinks it will draw 300 to 500 new customers to the track every day and create 200 new jobs.

"When you're in the gambling business, you want to be able to sell as many types of ice cream as you can," Snell said. "It means looking at new clientele coming to the track."

The prospect of state-sanctioned card rooms operating at frontons and dog and race tracks marks a sharp reversal in gambling fortunes in Florida.